How to copy default files without losing customized ones?

[RecognitionInc]

Hello, I need a spot of help: I've inherited maintenance of a site that has been heavily customized in non-semantic ways, such that if I try to change the theme of the site, the layout completely breaks. I need to work on a semantic redesign of the layout based on a clean template. Is there any way for me to access the original files and pages of my site without resetting the current layout to its defaults, so that I can make a copy of the entire original, out-of-the-box site to play with on my work machine?

[mikek]

Hello,

You can setup a local copy of the production site database on your local machine and then set up a clean AC7x site (on your local machine) pointing to the local production copy of the database. This setup will
require a separate development license for the local AC7 install. You can then start customizing the local site layout from scratch against the existing production products/categories data. Once the new
site is ready it can be uploaded on the server under separate web root folder, switching to the new site will only require root folder change in IIS and AC7 license reinstall.

I would recommend setting up both production and development sites under version control (Subversion or Mercurial any version control will do it) and deploying the new site from a version control branch.

[s_ismail]

I will recommend you to first install SVN and AC on your local machine then work there instead of live site then on completing work on local machine ,first take a backup of your live site on your live server then upload/replace your respective files only.